


house sparrow

by RagnarokRose



Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Chicago Firefighters (Blaseball Team), Gen, Incineration, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:07:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29902923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RagnarokRose/pseuds/RagnarokRose
Summary: A fan gets lost in the Firehouse before Game 79 of Season 12, and a pair of old friends help her out.
Kudos: 1
Collections: We Are Fanwork Creators





	house sparrow

**Author's Note:**

> I had We All Lift Together from Warframe on loop the entire time I was writing this, so I guess it's recommended listening!

The tunnels under the Firehouse are deep, and lead deeper into the City. Any true fan of the team knows that the Firehouse is connected to all places in Chicago, always two doors away from anywhere in city limits. Deep in the basements under the field, you can sometimes hear a distant crackle, and red and yellow light flickering on ancient bricks around just the next corner.

Gita Sparrow is not quite that deep, but she is very, very lost. It is dark, and she’s clutching a flashlight that sends a narrow beam dancing across the brick walls around her. Ivy even grows here in the lightless space. Gita’s been to the Firehouse many times. She’s been a fan since a young child. It’s not unfamiliar to her. So she’s confused now, because the tunnel _into_ the stadium is straightforward and simple, and she was with the crowd, but she just looked down for a second when she got tripped up by something to make sure her legs were still alright, and then…

She can still hear the crowd above, so she figures it’s not too far, but each corner she takes looks the same. Old bricks, discarded equipment. Her hand traces along the wall as she walks, the _tic, tic_ of her feet echoing in the empty space, and she stops, rubbing the tips of her fingers together. It feels like grit. She shines the flashlight on her fingertips.

Black ash…

In the cracks and crevices of the wall, the flashlight reveals the trace of charcoal of an old fire, almost baked into the bricks. It runs from the floor to the ceiling. Gita stands there for a moment, and then shakes her head, turning. If she doesn’t get out soon, she’s going to miss the start of the game. A new doorway appears in the beam of her flashlight, and her footsteps pick up the pace. There are stairs, upwards. Another doorway… and a large room she’s never seen before. In the middle of it, a hulk of metal sits. An old, old firetruck, still a deep red in paint. The light reveals the old logo of the Firefighters emblazoned on the side.

The woman walks slowly to the side of the truck, looking over the empty drivers seat, the old water tanks strapped to the side. The rim of the connection point for a hose smells like Royal Crown Malort. She rests a hand on the side of one of the tanks, looking over it, and draws in a breath and thinks out loud.

“This must have been around for the Great Fire…”

There’s a distant crackle. She glances over her shoulder at the stairs she came up, but they aren’t there anymore. Instead, there’s a large doorway, and a long, long hallway.

Gita’s hand tenses on the metal of the tank, but she turns to face the changed hall, eyes flickering around the space to see if anything else has changed. The walls feel like they press in on her, all looming in her mind’s eye.

At the end of the hallway, two bright dots blink open. They stare at Gita, and her breath catches in her throat as she locks eyes with them. They shift, bouncing up and down once, twice. Three times.

_click-ding. click-ding. click-ding._

Gita’s flashlight flickers up in her hand and strains against the length of the darkness in the hall. It can barely illuminate the outline of the creature standing there, paused in it’s step forward. A hulking shape, filling the walls of the hallway side-to-side. Those beady eyes blink as the light reaches them.

She steps forward to the doorway as she processes what it could be. Her voice is just above a breath as she whispers- _“Betsy?”_

The old cow turns her head, the bell on her collar dinging as she turns and walks away from Gita. Her tail flicks as she leaves the range of the flashlight.

Gita stand there for a moment, staring at the darkness. And then there’s heat, on the back of her neck.

She slowly turns to look back at the old truck.

There is a fire in the driver’s seat.

It looks at her. The fireproof jacket shifts as it leans forward through the open driver’s window to stare back down at the young woman, the light of it’s burning visage reflecting in the sheer metal of her legs.

Gita swallows, and it feels like her throat is full of smoke. It’s hard to catch her breath. “H-hey, Firefighter.”

The flame draws in a breath, and it feels like all the air leaves the room at once. The sound of the crowd overhead has faded. Instead, in the distance, there’s a faint siren… the clanging of old bells…

The fire jerks around as there’s the sound of voices. Gita looks too, at the doorway that wasn’t there a moment ago, where fluorescent light shines and two voices echo. She glances back at the firetruck as the voices get closer- and it’s empty again, lightless. She still feels the heat on her neck. Gita looks down at her hand as the beam of the flashlight shakes, pointed at the ground, and steadies it with her other hand, clicking the flashlight off. She draws in a breath, throat clear, and closes her eyes for a second as two figures round the corner.

“Josh- look- I get it. We have to come back out swinging, yeah, yeah, all that. But I worry-”

“You worry too much, Rivers!” His laugh echoes in the space, and then they both come to a halt.

Rivers Rosa frowns up at the old truck, pushing her hat back with a hand as she scratches her forehead. “What...” she mutters. Joshua Butt laughs again, a little in surprise this time. “You know, sometimes I think the old place gets excited for a game or two. It’s certainly been real worked up this season. Must be happy to be back.” He steps forward to set a hand on the bumper of the truck, face turned up in a little smile towards it.

Gita clears her throat. Josh and Rivers both look over at her, blinking in surprise. She looks down at the ground and then back up at them. “Hi. Sorry, I got lost on my way in. I know you’re both probably getting ready for the game, but could you show me the way out?”

Josh’s surprise turns to a smile again as he walks forward, sweeping his hands out in a welcoming gesture. “Hi! Yes, of course! You must have taken a heck of a turn to wind up down here! Though I wasn’t expecting it either today- I haven’t seen this old garage in ages! We had this truck put away after we got the new equipment, it just couldn’t move Malort up to scratch anymore. Shame, really.”

He shakes his head, smiling back over at the truck as he sweeps Gita up in his wake with a friendly tone and a welcoming presence. She catches up to him with a few quick paces, opening her mouth before she realizes she’s talking. “Is this one of the old trucks from the Great Fire? I read about how you had to improvise with the water tanks early on after it started.” Joshua blinks back at her and nods, grinning now. “It sure is! I think we took it out on parade after the championship in, oh, what was it, season 3, Rivers?”

“Five,” she says shortly, her arms still crossed. Her eyes are on Gita, and the younger woman can feel her gaze burning into her. “We should get going, Josh.”

“Ah, we still got a few minutes. There’s a fan here!" He puts a hand on a hip, adopting a pose Gita’s seen him use in a few pitcher’s mound meetings in particularly tense games, where the field defense all relied on a single run. "We can at least take the time for a tour, there’s never fans down here.” 

“No,” Rivers replies, still looking at Gita. “There aren’t. This is the team’s space.”

Gita ducks her head. “Sorry. I must have gotten lost.”

Rivers just looks at her, and then purses her lips. “Lost. Yeah.” She starts to walk forward, past the truck. “Let’s get you back to the stands…?”

Gita realizes the waiting silence is for her to fill in her name as her and Josh catch up to the stride of the taller woman. “Oh, it’s Gita! Gita Sparrow.” “That’s a nice name,” Joshua says, nodding. Gita smiles back.

Rivers just looks straight ahead as the trio enters the main halls of the Firehouse, the noise of the crowd looming overhead again. The bricks turn to walls, and a window, and a passing room where the sound of a Skate videogame main menu music blares from an Xbox. Soon enough, they’re back out of the dugout tunnel into the home field box. The crowd roars as Rivers steps into view, looking up and around with her hair still loose. Josh lags behind the pair, grabbing something as they come back out into the main space.

Rivers sighs, pausing at the top of the field stairs and ignoring the rising chant of “RIVERS! ROSA! RIVERS! ROSA!” as she turns to look back down at Gita. “You should get back up to your seat. You don’t want to be on the field when the game starts.”

Gita nods, quiet under the pitcher’s eye. Joshua’s hand comes to Gita’s shoulder as he comes up from behind her, and she turns her head towards him as he presses a fielder’s glove into her hand. “Here,” he says, with that same smile. “A gift from the team! For the trouble. It can get pretty cramped down there, it’s no way to start a game.”

Gita turns the glove over in her hand. Across the leather on the back is the fancy cursive of Josh’s signature- _Joshua Butt_.

She looks back up at him, overwhelmed. “I- Thank you. Seriously. I love the Firefighters a lot and it’s been a long time since I could catch a game in person and it- just means a lot to me-”

He pats her shoulder, nodding. “I’m glad! It’s always real nice to meet a big fan. Now that glove’s one of my Butt's Law triple specials, okay? I used it for three outs, so I think the luck’s all used up for me. But hey, no reason somebody else can’t find some use in it. I hope it brings you good luck, Gita.”

She nods in response, smiling down at the glove, and then steps forward to quickly hug him. He laughs, wrapping his arms around her for a second before pulling her back by the shoulders. “We’re gonna show you one hell of a game. Those Steaks are going to be real dry,” he says with a wink.

“Josh,” Rivers says with a warning tone. He sighs, stepping back. “Yeah, yeah, we gotta get ready-” “No. Look.” She’s looking up at the sky with her signature frown. Gita and Josh come to her side as the crowd hushes, and the moon starts to slide slowly over Sun 2.

“Eclipse.” River’s tone is flat, and her eyes come down to the pitching mound as she draws in a long, steady breath. She looks back at Gita. “Game in ten. Go on. Be safe.” The younger woman nods, looks at Josh, who smiles back with a wave, and takes the stairs two at a time out of the pit to make her way back to her front row seat behind third base.

As Gita leaves, Josh’s hand comes to Rivers’s shoulder, and he pulls her into a side hug. She’s tense. “Hey. Riv. It’ll be okay. They haven’t got us yet since eight.”

“Nine,” she corrects in a low tone. “It’s been three seasons. And that doesn’t mean a thing, Josh. It’s a new season.”

“It’s a new era,” he corrects her with a smile in his voice. “You’ll see!” Josh claps her on the shoulder as she closes her eyes and tugs her pitcher’s cap back into place.

“Yeah. We’ll see.”

...

_We’re back in the top of the sixth, and the Dallas Steaks are batting._

_Rivers Rosa on the mound._

_She hasn’t given up a run yet this game, folks, but I think something’s got her wound up with two on base! Two singles so far this inning._

_The outfielders are playing tight today in the dark, but Chicago’s used to these conditions- never met a Firefighter who couldn’t fight in the dark. She’s eyeing Patel on second, waiting for that steal attempt._

_Turning back to home plate as Gallup Crueller steps up for the Steaks._

_Here’s the windup- and a foul ball from Rosa wide of the plate as Crueller waits for it-_

_Swamuel has it, here comes Patel for the third base steal! Joshua Butt’s on his way to intercept, ball’s airborne, Butt’s leaping for Swamuel’s pass I think he has it folks Patel’s just under- OH! OH AN UMPIRE HAS INCINERATED JOSHUA BUTT FROM THE SIDELINE MID PLAY! PATEL HAS THIRD BASE AND THE BALL IS STILL IN PLAY! HALEY IS TRYING FOR SECOND BASE- SOMEONE HAS ENTERED THE FIELD FROM THE THIRD BASE LINE- THERE’S A YOUNG WOMAN SPRINTING PAST THIRD BASE! I REPEAT THERE IS A NEW PLAYER ON THE FIELD! GITA SPARROW HAS THE BALL AND IT’S SNAPPED BACK TO RIVERS ROSA TO END THE PLAY!_

_LISTENERS, THE TORCH HAS BEEN PASSED! PLAY MUST CONTINUE!_


End file.
